Freeport expects to resume normal Grasberg production Q2 2004
2003 copper production down, gold up
Tuesday, January 20 2004 - 05:20 PM WIB
Grasberg production was halted due to material slippage on October 9, 2003, which killed eight workers, followed by another slippage event on December 12, 2004 when debris flowed in a section of Grasberg.
?PT-FI has directed its open-pit mine operations to accelerating removal of waste material from the south wall to restore safe access to the higher grade ore areas in the pit. Ore previously forecast to be mined in 2004 is currently available for mining and will be mined once safe access is assured. Based on the substantial progress achieved to date, PT-FI expects to return to its key ore areas in the second quarter of 2004,? said the company in a statement. PT. Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI) is Freeport's subsidiary which runs the Papua mining complex.
Freeport said during the fouth quarter of 2003, mill throughput averaged 142,100 metric tons of ore per day compared with 239,100 metric tons of ore in the fourth quarter of 2002. ?Mill throughput in the first quarter of 2004 is expected to average approximately 100,000 metric tons of ore per day and is expected to return to a level approximating 230,000 metric tons per day once normal operations resume.?
Freeport said in the near term, PT-FI's ore will be sourced from its Deep Ore Zone (DOZ) underground mine, which averaged 42,800 metric tons per day in the fourth quarter of 2003, and from low grade material in the open pit. It said DOZ operations continued to perform above design capacity of 35,000 metric tons of ore per day and PT-FI is completing studies to increase the capacity of the DOZ underground operation to 50,000 metric tons per day, which would make DOZ one of the world's largest underground operations.
?As a result of the mine sequencing changes at the open pit, a portion of the higher grade ore previously forecast to be mined in 2004 is expected to be deferred to future periods, with the substantial majority of the deferred ore expected to be mined in 2005. These mine sequencing changes are not expected to affect long-term mine plans or recoverable ore reserves,? said Freeport.
Meanwhile, Freeport reported that copper and gold production during the fourth quarter of 2003 was significantly down due to Grasberg accident. Copper production was down to 160.4 million pounds from 427.1 million pounds in the fourth quarter 2002, while gold production was down to 264,300 ounces from 665,300 ounces. Copper production in 2003 fell to 1.291 billion pounds compared to 1.54 billion in 2002. However, despite fourth quarter production decrease, gold production in 2003 was increasing to 2.46 million ounces from 2.29 million ounces in the previous year.
Freeport previously estimated its annual sales to approximate 1.4 billion pounds of copper and 2.2 million ounces of gold in 2004.
The company also reported that during 2003, additions to the aggregate proven and probable reserves at the Grasberg mining complex totaled approximately 185.5 million metric tons of ore representing aggregate increases of 2.6 billion recoverable pounds of copper, 1.0 million ounces of gold and 17.1 million ounces of silver. Year-end aggregate proven and probable recoverable reserves, net of 2003 production, were 2.7 billion metric tons of ore averaging 1.08 percent copper, 0.98 g/t gold and 3.72 g/t silver. (alex)
*TABLE PT Freeport Indonesia's production and sales*
*TABLE PT Freeport Indonesia, 100% Operating Statistics*
